This was HOPELESS! He had been searching for a week and NOTHING! The only thing he had even come close to comparing his condition with was a vampire, and he did not remember being bitten within the last few days, nor did he start burning in the sun.
He tried looking up something about snake related traits in humans, and the only thing that did was briefly tell him about Salazar Slytherin's, and the Dark Lord Voldemort's, Parseltongue ability saying it was dark and evil magic, and that only the worst sorts of wizards were able to use it.
His fangs were bothering him all the time now. Every time someone would taunt him or make him the slightest bit angry, he would feel them grow longer, and it took every bit of self-restraint not to open his mouth and say something back, or someone might see them.
Those "Potter Stinks" badges weren't helping him either—he was a little happy to note that he didn't see Ron and Hermione wear one but, that could just mean that they were hiding them. Malfoy made a show of offering anyone a free badge every time he found Harry within earshot.
Finding no real information in the book he was holding, he sighed and put it back on the shelf in the library and left. He had about an hour to kill before heading to charms class, so he decided to go see Hagrid.
When the old hut came into view, Harry saw the large man standing next to one of the Blast-Ended Skrewts holding a bucket with some kind of purple goo in it. Hagrid noticed his approach, and turned to greet him. "'arry! What bringsya over 'ere?"
"Oh, you know… I had a little while before class, and I thought I'd just see what you were up to."
Hagrid, always eager to talk about creatures, said eagerly, "Well, with that snake attack on Professor Snape, I just wanted ter make sure that these li'tle ones were protected. See this?" He held out the bucket of purple goo. "It's my own makin', keeps them other animals way from 'em. This stuff gets on yer skin, and it bothers 'em like nothin' else. Can't do much else, not bein' able ter use magic an' all. Don't have ter worry about the Skrewts' though, only puttin' it on their shells."
Harry wasn't very worried about the Skrewts. They looked they could rip his legs off if they really wanted to.
"So, you wanna help?"
"Err…" Well, he had nothing better to do. "Sure Hagrid."
Hagrid passed him the bucked with the strange goo and pointed him in the direction of, thankfully, one of the smaller Skrewts.
"Uh, Hagrid," He looked up from the bucket "Do I need gloves for this?" Hagrid let out a small laugh.
"Na, just be careful not to get any on yer clothes."
Harry rolled up his sleeves and carefully stepped closer to the giant animal. From what he could tell the thing was sleeping, or at least he was hoping that's what it was doing. After he dipped his hand into the bucket, the goo only made his hands feel a little tingly so he didn't see it as too harmful. He raised his hands and slowly put it onto the giant shell. The creature twitched his front claw making Harry jump back in fright. After a few moments making sure that he wasn't about to be blasted to bits, he resumed putting the goo into its shell.
Nothing too exciting happened after that. It was actually unexpectedly peaceful working with them. Well, as peaceful as it gets when you're worried of getting a fireball to the face. But, there weren't any students or teachers around to mock him when they thought he wasn't looking.
Harry heard Hagrid come up behind him later "Well done 'arry! Yer a natural at this, y'u are." Harry couldn't help the small smile creep up on his face at his words.
"Thanks Hagrid," Hagrid handed him a slightly dirty hand towel.
"You better clean up and head onto yer next class. Thanks fer helpin' me out today, yer welcome to do it ag'in anytime." He patted him on the shoulder with his large hands and walked towards his hut.
Harry used the towel to get as much of the goo off as he could, and walked towards the school. Occasionally, he would rub his hands on the inside of his robe, it was an old one anyway and he didn't want his hands to keep tingling from the purple goo.
Nearing a bathroom, he quickly ducked in and went to the sink to wash his hands. He put his hands under the water and started scrubbing….and scrubbing…and scrubbing. Whatever that stuff was, the feeling of that slimy goo was not coming off. If he didn't hurry, then he was going to be late for charms, and he was already late twice yesterday. At least he couldn't see any purple on his hands.
Making his way into the classroom just as the bell rung, he found a seat hidden at the back of the class, hopefully making it so that no one would really notice him. Professor Flitwick had already stepped into his podium and started speaking. "Welcome, all, back to class. Today we are going to learn a new charm, the Summoning charm to be exact. Now everyone take out your wands …"
The goal was to use the charm to summon a pillow towards them from across the room. Focusing on one directly from him, he muttered "Accio," and his pillow twitched. He continued doing this but would stop every couple of minutes to try and scratch away the tingling feeling still in his hands.
"Accio, accio, accio!" the pillow lifted up and soared across the room, hitting him in the face.
"Mr. Potter let's see how you are coming along." Professor Flitwick had said next to his desk, after a while. Harry had just raised his wand, and opened his mouth to summon it again when the Professor said "Sweet Merlin! What did you do to your hand, child?" He looked down and saw what he was talking about. There were long, deep scratch marks on his hand. "Why didn't you say anything before now, Mr. Potter? These look awful! Class, don't move until I come back! Come along, Mr. Potter, to the hospital wing"
No, this was bad. Really, really bad. Didn't Hagrid say that only animals were supposed to have any reaction to the stuff? "Um, that's okay professor. I know the way I can go myself."
"Are you sure? Mr. Potter, those look really bad."
"I'm fine professor really. It doesn't hurt that bad." Actually, they itched like crazy now. He was trying extremely hard not to start scratching again. "Could I just have a pass, please?"
"Well if you are sure… wait a moment I will be right back."
Some students had turned around to look at him to see what the fuss was about. Ron, and Hermione were sitting next to each other a couple of rows in front of him, and they were both giving him strange looks. Harry tried not to look at them both for too long. "Here you are, Potter. Now hurry up before they get any worse." Professor Flitwick handed him a piece of parchment and ushered him out of the classroom.
Harry found only silence in the hall. He quickly found the nearest door, which happened to be a closet and shut it behind him. There was no way he was going to the hospital wing, what if Madam Pomfrey discovered that he had fangs that he might not even be human. Harry figured that he was probably over reacting. What if he was just having an allergic reaction to whatever Hagrid had made? He couldn't stop scratching his skin it just kept itching. He looked at his hand and saw a piece of skin hanging free on his left hand, so he pulled on it trying to get it off. Except instead of pulling a small piece, he ended up pulling off most the skin on his hand, leaving behind a dark color.
"Okay, this is not good." He mumbled. With his right hand, he gently touched the areas of missing skin and found it to be rough and bumpy, almost like a snake. "No, this is bad, really, really bad." What was happening to him? How could have he possibly thought he could handle this? He was a freak! His head fell into his snake skinned hands.
How was he going to hide this? Someone was bound to notice the way his hands looked. He would only draw attention to himself if he wore gloves. He heard a cat's meow from outside of the door, and Filtch's voice came next "What's that my darling? Have you caught a student?" No, not Filtch. He would just make things worse for him.
The door creaked open and Harry quickly stuffed his hands into his pockets to hide his new problem. Filtch stood towering over him "Well, well looks like Mr. Potter is skipping classes. What should we do about that?" He reached down and grabbed him by the arm "I think your head of house will want to know what you are doing." He pulled him up and hauled him off to McGonagall's office.
The look on her face when she came in was priceless. Harry had a terrified look on his face, and with Filtch man handling him, it didn't look pretty. "What the devil have you done to the child?"
"I didn't do nuffin', found him like this in the closet near the charms classroom." Filtch said as he pushed him towards his professor.
"Yes, well take a seat Potter. I've been meaning to talk to you anyway." He didn't meet her eyes when he sat down or the entire time she was talking. "This past week I have seen more out of your school work then I have in the whole time you have been here Potter. I just wish you have shown more attention to your studies in previous years."
Hermione wasn't around to help him anymore, and he had nothing better to do now that he was alone all the time. All he had was his schoolwork, so most of his attention went to it. "Thanks Professor," he said surprised.
"However, seeing your current situation…." She stopped talking for a moment, and just looked at him. Harry still wasn't meeting her eyes. She made a move to comfort him, but thought better of it. "Well, Mr. Potter, keep up the good work and I'll look over you skipping class." She dismissed him and watched him out. "Poor child," she muttered "no one should have to go through this."
The Hogwarts staff meeting was being held inside Albus Dumbledore's office. The Students were all supposed to be in their Common rooms as it was after curfew. Severus Snape was in the meeting as he had just gotten out of the Hospital Wing the day before. He had told the staff that he didn't remember much of what happened but, that was not entirely true. He remembered being bitten by something, but it was most defiantly not a snake.
Professor Sprout had substituted for Professor Snape while his hand was healing. It was covered in what looked like a green glove. From what they had been told, he had nearly lost it due to the poison. It had been lucky that Madam Pomfrey was there or they would have had to cut it off.
Sprout had been informing them of what they had learned and the progress of all the students, when she came upon the subject of Harry Potter "He has been doing remarkably well in potions. I don't know why you keep complaining about him, he turned in a potion just the other day that was nearly flawless."
"Then I suppose getting into a tournament is not the only thing he is willing to cheat in." he said with the usual sneer to his face "Mr. Potter has been hardly passing all the years he has been in my class."
"Well I don't know about that, but Potter has been doing well in my class as well." Flitwick said. "It's a shame all of this had to happen for him to put this much effort into his work"
"I think the tournament is starting to get to him. Filtch found him crying in a cupboard while skipping your class." Flitwick looked surprised.
"He didn't skip my class. He had large scratch marks on his hands, so I sent him on his way to the Hospital Wing."
"Well I never saw him" Madam Pomfrey said a little worried. "I haven't seen him since he came into the wing while I with that student who had been effected by a dark object."
"Well this is worrisome" Dumbledore had spoken up "Minerva, had you seen anything wrong with his hands while he was in your office?"
"Nothing that I could see, he kept them hidden beneath his robes, and he wouldn't look at me properly."
Snape made a noise of disgust "That's just him being an attention seeking brat. I'm sure it was all one of his little pranks, and that he is perfectly fine."
Albus looked at the potions professor. "Now I'm sure Harry has an explanation for this," he looked around the room "I want you all to keep an eye out for him, if he really is hurt, find out why he didn't seek out help. If Voldemort really is going to return, we need to keep him safe". He dismissed them and they all left the room.
Albus sat back in his desk chair, and though about the boy causing his current headache. What was the poor boy thinking right now? If he really was hurt, why didn't he come for help? He couldn't protect Harry from the dark if he didn't know what was happening to him. Albus sighed and popped a lemon drop into his mouth. This was something he had to deal with and fast.
He was in an old and dusty room. A source of warmth and light came from the fireplace in front of the only chair in the room. He couldn't see who was in the chair as it was facing away from him. A large snake slithered into the room from the door and it whispered "Master, the rat-man has received a letter for you from your follower at Hogwarts. He is debating on whether or not to give it to you now." She had slithered up to the side of his chair and was now facing whoever was in it.
A cold voice spoke "Stupid fool, I should have him punished for showing any signs of weakness." A small and scaly hand reached out to pet the snake's head.
"Master, when will I get to eat the boy?" the snake hissed again.
"Soon, my dearest. When I finally have my body back, then you may have him for your dinner." The snake made a hiss like it was happy. "Go now, and see if you could convince the Rat-man to give me that letter." The snake slithered down from the chair and out the door.
It has been so long since he has had a real body to call his own, since it was destroyed by the rebounding curse of that child. Maybe if he hadn't taken the prophecy to heart, and Stopped looking for Abigail, then maybe he would still have his body. He still wondered if she was alive, if she had really been captured by the order, or if his followers were right and she had betrayed him.
If anyone were to find out his true feelings for the woman, it would ruin him. They would see him as weak, and they would have used her against him. No, no one can ever know the truth about her. The only woman that he ever truly cared for. But, the time to think about her has ended; the rat-man has come into the room with his letter
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